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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28142088">apple pie</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/justajoke99/pseuds/justajoke99'>justajoke99</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Tiny Meat Gang (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, First Kiss, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mutual Pining, pls this is soft, slight homophobia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:53:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,295</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28142088</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/justajoke99/pseuds/justajoke99</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>noel can't go home for winter break.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cody Ko/Noel Miller</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>apple pie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello! here is a lil early holiday gift to you from me. this idea popped into my head and i decided i had to write it. as for armed and dangerous, i have more of it written, but i might edit it over my break and reupload it all because i always hate my stuff when i reread it. anyways! i hope y'all are doing as well as you can right now, and just know i love u &lt;3. as i always say, this is not what i think the boys' relationship is like, i simply like writing fluff bc i am alone.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>cody had just finished his calc final, and was heading directly to the library where he knew noel was working on his paper. he walks into the library, scanning for noel, and smiles when he sees him, on the phone, with at least 3 books open in front of him. cody walks over, ready to tell noel how well his calc final went, but he slows down when he overhears noel’s conversation.</p><p>“so you’re telling me, i can’t come home for winter break?”</p><p>there was a muffle on the other line.</p><p>“mom. please. are you kidding me?”</p><p>“no, i know what the pastor thinks, but you’re turning away your own son?”</p><p>cody stops dead in his tracks. what? he maneuvers behind one of the many shelves of books and listens more intently. eavesdropping was wrong, but he was nosy.</p><p>“mom, please, where am i supposed to go for the break?”</p><p>cody can see from here that there are tears welling up in noel’s eyes.</p><p>“i’m done with this conversation, bye,” noel whispers angrily, hanging up the phone and slamming it down on the table, earning a glare from the others in the library. noel holds his head in his hands and then looks up at the time, scrambling to scrub his eyes, he knows cody’s coming from calc soon. noel picks up his phone again and cody hears his buzz.</p><p>“you comin’ to the library? i bet you kicked calc II’s ass”</p><p>“yea im omw, and hell yea you know i did” cody responds with. he waits a couple extra minutes and emerges from behind the bookshelf, sitting in front of noel. he can tell where the edges of noel’s eyes are rimmed with red.</p><p>“how’s the paper coming?”</p><p>“dude, i want nothing more to do with physics, can we go like, get a coffee or something?”</p><p>“abso-fucking-lutely we can,” cody says with a smile, helping noel pack up his bags before wrapping an arm around his shoulders as they walk out of the library together.</p><p>noel leans into the touch a little more than he normally does.</p><p>they’re on their way to the campus coffee shop, as close together as they can, cody tells himself he gets closer to noel because of the snow.</p><p>yeah. the snow.</p><p>...</p><p>they’re sitting near a window, watching the white on the ground slowly build up.</p><p>“you got any big plans for break?” noel asks, and cody has to keep his eyes from showing that he knows anything.</p><p>“no, not really, what about you?” cody kicks himself after he asks it, did he think before he said anything?</p><p>“same here, not really anything,” noel says, looking down, stirring his coffee.</p><p>“we could do something?” cody suggests, trying to get noel to stop looking so damn sad. he hated seeing noel like that.</p><p>“yeah, yeah, we should.” there’s a far off look in noel’s eyes that cody doesn’t recognize or like. cody reaches over and grabs noel’s hand.</p><p>“i’m gonna, uh, go, back to my dorm and take a nap, i think that physics paper is freaking me out.”</p><p>“wait, noel, we can hang out, i’ve got nothing else going on,”</p><p>“i think i’m just really tired, i’ll text you tonight?”</p><p>“okay,” cody complacently replies, watching as noel quickly packs up his things and exits the shop. he sighs and packs up his things as well, leaving his coffee behind, he didn’t have the appetite anymore.</p><p>he’s halfway back to his apartment when he takes out his phone and texts noel’s roommate, spock.</p><p>“what’s noel’s favorite type of pie?”</p><p>spock was nothing if not a fast text responder.</p><p>“apple, his mom used to make it for him all the time before he left for college”</p><p>something in cody’s heart broke at that.</p><p>“ok thx”</p><p>“np”</p><p>cody reroutes himself from his apartment and orders himself an uber.</p><p>he’s walking aimlessly around target, looking at an apple pie recipe on his phone.</p><p>“what are you looking for, dear?” an older woman comes up to him, touching his elbow.</p><p>“oh, just some stuff for an apple pie,” cody says, smiling at the woman.</p><p>“oh an apple pie? for any particular reason?”</p><p>“no, not really, just making an apple pie for my friend,” cody replies, wondering where the woman was going with her line of questioning.</p><p>“a friend you say? well then don’t bother with that recipe, i’ll give you a much better one,” she says, with a chuckle.</p><p>“no, no! that’s okay, you don’t have to do that,”</p><p>“no, if i’m right about this “friend” then you’ll want my recipe,” the woman says with finger quotes.</p><p>“ma’am, i think you have the wrong idea, this is just a friend of mine,”</p><p>“mhm, i used to do nice stuff for my “friend” all the time and now she’s my wife,” she says with a smile. cody’s eyes widen a bit at that.</p><p>“now let me give you my recipe,” she says a little sterner.</p><p>cody opens his notes app and starts typing everything the woman says. after she finishes, she looks at him with a gleam in her eyes.</p><p>“i hope everything works out with your ‘friend’,” she finishes with a wink before walking away. cody smiles to himself, and begins grabbing everything the woman told him to. she stressed the importance and love that goes into making a handmade crust, and how he should keep his fats cold, and how using lemon juice in the filling would accentuate the apple flavor. he walks out of target with three bags full of everything needed to make what was the “perfect apple pie”.</p><p>he’s back at his apartment, admiring everything he bought and checking the time. he had enough time to bake this pie and to get to noel’s at not an unreasonable hour. he gets to work, adding his flour, butter and vegetable shortening to make his crust. there’s flour all over his shirt as he kneads the dough, prepping to put it in the fridge for an hour.</p><p>noel’s head is shoved into his pillow, stifling tears. his hands are at the base of his skull, pressing inwards to try and ground himself. he had no idea what he was going to do for the 6 weeks he was off for school. he lived in a dorm, and had nowhere to go if not home. tears fall out of his eyes as he thinks about what his mom said.</p><p>“pastor john said that since you are obviously, lost, right now, that we can’t accept you into our home until you accept your sins and correct them.”</p><p>noel had made the mistake of coming out to his parents over his thanksgiving break, and while they had sat silently at the dinner table with their lips pursed, they’d obviously talked to the pastor and now decided that he was no longer welcome in their family if he was going to be “aligning himself with the devil”.</p><p>noel had to figure out what the fuck he was going to do for 6 weeks.</p><p> </p><p>cody’s crust is baked, and he’s mixing the apple filling, tasting spoonfuls of it until he gets the perfect ratio of cinnamon to apple. smiling to himself, knowing how happy noel will be with the pie, he fills up the crust and lays lattice work over the top. he shaped hearts out of the leftover crust to place on the intersections of the lattice. his tip of his tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth as he perfected their placement. he places his pie in the oven, flopping tiredly on the couch, antsy to show noel his hard work.</p><p> </p><p>noel picks up his phone and texts cody. he’d left him kinda abruptly this afternoon and didn’t mean to. he just needed time away. cody was always so happy, and he’d looked at noel with such care in his eyes that noel almost leaned across the table and kissed him.</p><p> </p><p>almost.</p><p> </p><p>“hey codes, wanna come over in like 30 or sum?”</p><p>“how about you come to mine? i’m really comfortable on the couch,”</p><p>“fine, you win, i’ll head over in 30,”</p><p>cody’s bouncing up and down, smiling as he looks at his hard work. the entire house smells like cinnamon, and the pie looked pretty good if he did say so himself. he hears a knock at the door and nearly runs to open it.</p><p>“hey,” cody says smiling so big, his cheeks are red.</p><p>“what’s up with you?” noel asks, gesturing to cody’s general state.</p><p>“just, come inside and sit on the couch and close your eyes.”</p><p>“okay weirdo, but if you’re going to murder me please do it slowly,”</p><p>“noel! it’s not that, just sit on the couch,” cody gasps, with a slight wack to noel’s shoulder.</p><p>noel complies and when he steps inside cody’s apartment, tears almost spring to his eyes. it smells like his mom’s apple pie. cody must’ve gotten a new plug in for his wall or a candle or something.</p><p>he hears cody’s footsteps and can tell when cody plants himself in front of noel.</p><p>“open your eyes,” cody says with a laugh.</p><p>noel opens his eyes and his breath is taken away. it’s an apple pie. with hearts on the lattice work. it’s homemade crust. tears are fully in his eyes now.</p><p>“do you like it?” cody asks, and his voice is full of so much love and anticipation that noel bursts out into tears. cody set down the pie on the coffee table frantically.</p><p>“oh god, you hate it, i’m sorry, i was just trying to make you feel better and-” cody stops when noel wraps his arms around cody’s chest and sobs into it more. cody’s hands, which had frozen around noel lower down to reciprocate the hug. noel is crying the hardest cody has ever seen.</p><p>“it’s okay, it’s going to be okay, i promise,” cody whispers to noel, rubbing a hand up and down his back.</p><p>“how’d- how’d you know?” noel says with a sniffle.</p><p>“spock, bro, he said apple was your favorite,”</p><p>noel smiles slightly to himself. cody asked spock what his favorite pie was to make it for him, he was such a good friend and noel didn’t deserve him.</p><p>“thank you, thank you so much,”</p><p>“i know, i know, i’m the best, now let’s eat some pie,” cody says, running to grab plates and forks from his kitchen. he cuts noel a slice and watches as he bites into it.</p><p>“is it good?”</p><p>“cody, it’s delicious holy shit. what did you use?”</p><p>“i’m not really sure i just followed the unsolicited advice given to me by an older lesbian from target,”</p><p>“dude. you’re kidding right,”</p><p>“no! i am not, she was very helpful,” cody says, crossing his arms.</p><p>“did anyone else see this woman cody? was she shrouded in mist?”</p><p>“fuck off man, just eat your pie,” cody says with a smirk.</p><p>noel had eaten two slices of pie, and was now leaning back on cody’s couch.</p><p>“so. don’t feel like you have to share, but are you okay?”</p><p>“yeah cody, i was just stressed with finals and stuff,”</p><p>cody takes a deep sigh, which makes noel sit up and make eye contact with him.</p><p>“what?”</p><p>“i overheard some of that phone call,” cody says, wincing a tad.</p><p>“what phone call?”</p><p>“noel.”</p><p>“cody, i just, please, i don’t-”</p><p>“if you need a place to stay for winter break, you know you can stay with me, right?”</p><p>“cody, i-i, can’t have you doing that, just, forget what you heard, it’s not important,”</p><p>“noel, i just, want you to know i’ll be your friend no matter what,”</p><p>“oh god, so you heard that part too?” noel asks, his pitch raising a bit, “did you just eavesdrop on my entire conversation?”</p><p>cody cringes a bit.</p><p>“noel. please, just, we can talk about it, or not! let’s just watch something shitty on netflix and then we don’t have to think about it!”</p><p>noel holds his head in his hands.</p><p>noel, just look at me, please,” cody begs, putting his hands on noel’s.</p><p>“just, cody, please, i-”</p><p>cody gets off the couch and crouches in front of noel, pulling his hands away from his eyes. there’s tears there now. cody’s hands move back up to noel’s face and he holds it, swiping tears away with his thumbs.</p><p>“i love my mom, you know? how can i not? but then she does this and i just- i-i-i” noel heaves.</p><p>“it’s okay, it’ll be okay, i’m right here,” cody whispers, continuing to wipe the tears that are falling down noel’s cheeks.</p><p>“if my family doesn’t accept me, then who will? where am i supposed to go? i just- i want them to love me,” noel cries out.</p><p>“i’m here, i accept you, i love you noel, i promise, i’m not leaving,”</p><p>“you promise?”</p><p>cody looks at the man, with so much love in his heart that he cannot begin to express. there’s not words that would ever let noel know how much he meant what he said.</p><p>there weren't any words he could use. so, cody tilted his head upward and pressed his lips to noel’s. he lets one hand cup noel’s cheek as the other moves to hold his hand.</p><p>cody pulls back slowly.</p><p>“i promise,” he whispers, holding noel’s hand tightly. noel lets go and grabs cody’s elbow to pull him on the couch next to him. noel leans back in, and kisses cody, his hands grabbing cody’s face. they both pull back slowly, resting their foreheads against each other’s as cody wipes tears from under noel’s eyes.</p><p>noel moves back into cody’s arms, resting his head on his shoulder.</p><p>cody whispers “i promise” into noel’s ear so many times he loses count.</p>
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